Forensic Psychology Test Review

Forensic Psychology Test Review

• Forensic psychology is defined in two ways:
  • Narrow definition: Clinical practices in forensic settings (assessment, consultation, treatment). Excludes research.
  • Broad definition: Research endeavors and/or professional practices examining human behavior in the legal system, including social, cognitive, personality, organizational, and developmental psychology.

Roles of a Forensic Psychologist

• Clinical Forensic Psychologist: Focuses on mental health of people related to legal system. Training includes M.A. or Ph.D. in clinical psychology and internships.
• Experimental Forensic Psychologist: Research focus on human behavior and the law. Training includes a Ph.D. in psychology with potential law training (e.g., LL.B.).
• Legal Scholar Forensic Psychologist: Research and analysis focus on mental health law and policy. Training includes a Ph.D. in psychology with legal training (e.g., LL.B.).

History of Forensic Psychology

• Early research by Cattell (1895) demonstrated that everyday observations of memory are often inaccurate.
• Binet (1900) developed intelligence tests for children.
• Stern (1910) studied eyewitness testimony and arousal, linking stress with potential false memories.
• Von Schrenck-Notzing (1896) in Europe showed that pre-trial publicity can lead to retroactive memory falsification.

History of Forensic Psychology Continued

• Varendonck (1911): children's testimony is susceptible to suggestiveness during interrogations.
• Munsterberg (1908): discussed the role of psychology within legal systems.
• State v. Driver (1921) US case where a psychologist offered expert testimony.
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) US case related to school segregation.
• Jenkins v. United States (1962) US case related to psychologist qualifications.
• Canadian courts slower to use psychologists as experts.

Admissibility Criteria

• Frye v. United States (1923) established the general acceptance test for novel scientific evidence used in court.
• Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993). Standards for admissibility of expert testimony (validity, relevance, reliability, adherence to professional standards).
• R v. Mohan (1994) added to Canadian standards for expert testimony (relevance, helpfulness, reliability, and qualification of expert).

Police Psychology and Selection

• Police selection processes often involve job analysis to define important knowledge, skill, and abilities (KSAs) for a police officer.
• Selection methods frequently used: Intelligence tests, personality tests, psychological/psychiatric screening , background checks, and selection interviews.
• Importance of Cognitive ability, personality, job-related skills in police applicant evaluation.

Police Selection Process

• The process includes two main stages: job analysis (defines important KSAs) and construction/validation of measures of KSAs (tests, interviews, etc.).
• Issues include: KSAs may not be stable; different jobs require different KSAs; agreement on KSAs can be difficult.

Police Psychology and Discretion

• Police discretion involves using professional judgment to choose when to enforce the law.
• Some laws require enforcement, but others are debatable and subject to interpretation by the officer.
• Factors like case specifics, public opinion, other resources can influence discretion.
• Concerns like racial profiling and encounters with individuals with mental illness raise ethical and logistical questions.

Police Interrogation and Coercive Measures

• Mr. Big example: Undercover police operations.
• Interrogation Methods The Reid Model, involves three general stages: Evidence gathering, accusatorial interview, and obtaining confession.
  • Minimization techniques
  • Maximization techniques

False Confessions

• False confessions can be voluntary, coerced-compliant, or coerced-internalized.
• Types of false confessions that may arise (voluntary, coerced-compliant, coerced-internalized).
• False confession causes, including desire for notoriety, to protect someone else, or need for punishment.
• Alternatives to Reid Model (Ex. PEACE model).
• Factors that lead to false confessions and concerns (such as trial processes).

Criminal Profiling

• Criminal profiling analyzes crime scenes and offender behavior to develop profiles of potential perpetrators.
• Deductive profiling works backward from known crimes to predict characteristics of the offender.
• Inductive profiling identifies similar patterns across multiple solved cases.

Polygraph and Other Measures

• Polygraph tests have limitations and challenges in accuracy and admissibility..
• Other measures like thermal imaging, event-related brain potentials (ERPs), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can detect deception but have limitations.

Eyewitness Testimony and Memory

• Memory encoding, storage, retrieval, and their effect on eyewitness testimony.
• Issues such as contamination, misinformation effect (source misattribution), and memory impairment in eyewitness testimony.
• Important procedures for conducting cognitive interviews and lineups to reduce mistakes in eyewitness testimony.

Malingering

• Malingering is the intentional feigning of symptoms for external gain.
• Different motives and types of malingering, including to avoid punishment, gain access to benefits, or avoid duties.
• Identifying malingering is challenging due to the variety of symptoms used, overlap of symptoms with legitimate disorders. Alternative methods for assessing malingering (e.g., criminological model, adaptational model).

Lineup Procedures

• Sequential lineups improve accuracy in eyewitness identification more than simultaneous procedures.
• Lineup procedures, such as simultaneous vs sequential lineups.

Factors Affecting Eyewitness Testimony and Identification

• Issues in eyewitness identification and issues with lineups (ex. factors like witness confidence).
• Factors affecting accuracy for certain groups (older adults and witnesses of a different race to the suspects, etc.).